NOTRE DAME, Ind. -
One week after posting a 5-0 record at the UCF Invitational, the Notre Dame softball team travels to the Cougar Classic hosted by the College of Charleston.

Joining the Irish will be Iowa State, Marist and Liberty. Drexel rounds out the six-team field.

Notre Dame last traveled to the Charleston area in 2008, when the team went 4-1 at Charleston Southern's Lowcountry Invitational. The program also played in 1994 edition of the Winthrop Invitational held in Rock Hill, S.C.

One-Hitters ...
 Notre Dame is in its 23rd season of varsity competition with an all-time record of 896-411-3 (.684) ... the program boasts 15 NCAA Championship appearances (12 consecutive) and six BIG EAST Conference tournament titles, the latest coming in 2009.
 The Irish are off to the second-best start in program history after opening 2011 with a 5-0 mark at the UCF Invitational ... the 2001 team rattled off eight straight wins to start the season en route to earning a program-record 54 victories.
 Head coach Deanna Gumpf is now 5-5 (.500) in season-openers at Notre Dame, while the Irish are 10-13 (.435) overall in their first game of a new campaign.
 Outfielder Alexa Maldonado was named the BIG EAST Conference Softball Player of the Week (Feb. 21) after going 7-for-14 from the dish with three hits for extra bases (double, triple, home run) for a slugging pct. of .929 during UCF invitational ... she scored six times while driving in six more runs ... also earning recognition from the league was freshman pitcher Laura Winter, who was a part of the conference's weekly honor roll ... on the first day of her collegiate career, Winter earned a win and a save without surrendering an earned run in just 3.1 innings of work in outings against Miami (Ohio) and UCF. She gave up five hits - only one for extra bases - and one run in 8.1 frames of work over three appearances for a 0.84 ERA and a 2-0 record ... Winter had two games with more than five strikeouts, one of which came in 2.1 innings in the season-opener with Miami (Ohio).